There’s something very emotional about sports dramas if they’re done right, and I can finally admit that I feel that way about The Winning Try. Episodes 7 and 8 were definitely some of the more intense episodes of this drama that has been quite fun to watch so far. We’re finally getting answers to questions we’ve had since the show started, and while some of the incidents are extremely dramatic for effect, I still think the show overall is very compelling, and if you need some sort of motivation, then this one will do you good. Episodes 7 and 8 focus on what happened 3 years ago when Ga-Ram retired and also on why Ung is struggling to do the one most important thing in rugby, tackling, despite wanting to play the sport so bad. I do think the ending of episode 8 feels quite over the top, but we’ll see where things go next, I don’t think it’s as bad as the cliffhanger makes it look. With that said, let’s jump into episodes 7 and 8.
Spoiler Alert
Why Did Ga-Ram Get Caught Doping?
The Winning Try episode 7 begins with a flashback where Ga-Ram decides to take drugs to avoid showing his weakness in front of the whole country. They were meant to play at the Olympics, but Ga-Ram quit unexpectedly. The thing we never found out was that he tried to tell his coach that he was seriously unwell, but the coach never gave him the chance to speak up. Ga-Ram didn’t want to ruin the chances of the team winning, so he took the tablets and ended up retiring. On the other hand, when I-Ji tried to go after him, Ga-Ram ended up unconscious in the middle of the street, so they missed each other, and she never found out what happened. In the present day, Ga-Ram is told he needs surgery immediately for a possible tumor, but he is desperate to have his team win. I-Ji is also at the hospital this time around, but Ga-Ram asks her to give him 3 months so that he can make sure his team does well before he quits and gets the surgery. That is all he wants. I-Ji is frustrated that Ga-Ram never told her what happened, even after coming back; she doesn’t know how to react because she’s been blaming him all this time. She even tells the principal that Ga-Ram used to be part of her routine, meaning he was as important as shooting to her, but it was all ruined because he didn’t want to be a “burden,” and that day was very important for her career (it was still ruined, no?).
What Happens to I-Ji?
I-Ji stands up for Ga-Ram and claims that she actually does have yips, which is why she had to rush to the hospital, and Ga-Ram was there as her guardian. She’s asked to take a pause from coaching activities, because how can somebody who can’t shoot teach students to do the same? To make matters worse, Nak-Gyun even tells her that she’s not a player anymore and her career has ended after all of this. At the same time, U-Jin’s scores start to get worse after I-Ji stops coaching her, and this makes Nak-Gyun mad. Even if he doesn’t care if she goes to college or not. Later in the show, I-Ji notices it’s because of U-Jin’s new shoes that she’s struggling to shoot, so she buys her a few new pairs to practice her stance in. Of course, she has the highest score in the match after that.
Why Can’t Ung Tackle?
Meanwhile, Seong-Jun’s mother shows up at the location of the massive tournament they’re participating in, only to tell him the night before his match that she won’t be in attendance. Turns out she’s tired of going back and forth between him and his twin brother, and the family wants Seong-Jun to quit rugby and consider becoming an assistant/manager in the future. Seong-Jun tells her that he plans on doing no such thing, and he will continue to play rugby. He then shares a cute little moment with U-Jin, but we already know that Ung might come in the way of this in the future. I just hope it doesn’t mess things up too badly.
Finally, Coach Song shows up to the game between Hanyang and Daesang, but it’s to see the boys of Hanyang. He kind of apologizes to Ga-Ram for ruining his career 3 years ago, but of course, Ga-Ram doesn’t blame him. He’s eager for him to watch Team Hanyang. In the beginning, Hanyang had an advantage despite having no substitute players. On top of that, Tae-Pung has joined the other team but is struggling with a knee injury that the coach makes no allowances for. But this prevents him from giving his best shot, and Hanyang scores first. But ultimately, because Ung isn’t able to tackle, the team loses from exhaustion. Ung is fast, and he can get all the tries with the help of the rest of the team, but it’s not enough. However, despite losing and crying, the team has shown their talent and persistence, so Coach Song writes a great report about them, specifically mentioning Seong-Jun and Ung, too. This gets colleges to pay attention to them, which leads to the vice principal siding with Ga-Ram because all he cares about is renown and attention. On the other hand, in shooting, U-Jin clearly has the better shot and gets the gold medal, putting Seol-Hyeon at silver.
Later, U-Jin tells Nak-Gyun that she needs a recommendation letter to apply to Daehan University for their early applications. He sees U-Jin’s application and immediately decides to give Seol-Hyun the upper hand, writing a recommendation letter for her. On the other hand, he tells I-Ji to write one for U-Jin, which makes her terribly happy, but I have a feeling two people can’t be recommended from the same school, which is why he made I-Ji write it instead of writing it himself.
For team rugby, the main issue is Ung not being able to tackle, so each of his teammates decides to train him differently. One of them even brings a cute little bull, though using it would obviously end up being animal cruelty, so they don’t go along with that plan. However, suddenly the whole school has eyes on them because it’s revealed that Ung was a bully at his previous school. The boys take it upon themselves to solve the problem. Turns out Ung has trauma because he was bullied, and as the son of a rugby player, people beat him up and urged him to tackle them. After enduring for a long time, Ung ended up tackling one of the boys to the ground. He hit his head on a brick and started bleeding, which left Ung traumatized because he thought he had killed someone out of rage. That didn’t happen though; the boy survived, but Ung was left “damaged.”
Seong-Jun humiliates himself by getting on his knees in front of Ung’s bully to get the post about Ung being a bully taken down. The boy knows he’s a famous athlete’s twin, so it’s like having a celebrity kneel at his feet; he even takes pictures and claims he’ll delete the post. But this is when Seong-Jun gets aggressive and forces him to do it right then. They return all smiley and excited, telling the vice principal what they’ve done, but Ga-Ram is furious they went out of their way to handle things. It means they didn’t trust their coach to help them and put themselves in danger to do something themselves.
Ga-Ram then tells the boys that the punishment will be to tackle him, their coach, and until Ung manages to do it, they will have to continue pushing him down. For hours and hours, they keep going, even in the rain, but Ung just isn’t able to do it. Even if Ga-Ram is hurling insults at him. Finally, Ung’s father shows up too and tells his son that if he’s unable to tackle, then rugby isn’t meant for him. Both Ga-Ram and he tell Ung that this is the end for him, but Ung isn’t ready to take no for an answer. Ultimately, he tells the coach he can do it multiple times before finally taking him down. The scene is too similar to the one where the boy hit the brick, but Ga-Ram is perfectly fine, and the boys are delighted to have their team brimming with potential again.
Why Does Heung-Nam Hate Ga-Ram?
When they returned to Hanyang, Heung-Nam was the first to point out that it was Ga-Ram and I-Ji missing from the staff. He wants to get Ga-Ram caught because he believes he gets everything handed to him on a platter, unlike people like him and I-Ji. He’s basically jealous. To make matters worse, in episode 8, Ga-Ram’s rugby team does so well in the game that, despite losing, the vice principal understands that they’re getting attention, so he tells Heung-Nam to give his aerobics team’s gym time to the rugby team. Heung-Nam is already furious with Ga-Ram, but this is the last straw for him. In the final minutes of episode 8, we see him waiting for Ga-Ram in his room, secretly. He probably knows about his condition, but the question is, will he choose to be loyal to the vice principal who only cares about results? Will he choose to be a terrible person because he’s jealous of Ga-Ram? Or will he give the man the benefit of the doubt, realizing that Ga-Ram isn’t really the evil man he’s making him out to be?
What Happens to U-Jin?
At the end of The Winning Try episode 8, U-Jin finds Seol-Hyun’s recommendation letter and wakes her up in the middle of the night. The latter doesn’t even know what she’s talking about, which makes U-Jin rush to Nak-Gyun. They get into an argument, and Nak-Gyun tries to grab the sheets from U-Jin’s hands. He uses so much force that he pushes her into a glass box of trophies, through which she crashes and falls. I-Ji shows up immediately and tells Nak-Gyun to get away from U-Jin while he’s berating her, despite her bleeding and being unable to get up off the floor. I-Ji then grabs a gun and points it at him because nothing else seems to be working. She shoots at the target first as a warning, and then the screen goes black as we hear another gunshot. I don’t think I-Ji is going to shoot at the coach, but this is just for effect and to make us eager for episodes 9 and 10.
In the epilogue, we see I-Ji help Ga-Ram walk to his room. He tells her he’s thankful that she cares about him. Ga-Ram took her gun away because it was part of a healing process, but he tells her in the epilogue that he will give it back to her when she’s in a dangerous situation. Guess Nak-Gyun did put her in one, so we can imagine she took Ga-Ram’s words seriously and resorted to the gun only when she was desperate.
